Orlando Holiday Planning

Water Ride Guide - Universal Orlando - Mini Episode

Listen Later

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Universal's Islands of Adventure has free
brilliant water

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rides
to help you cool off in the Orlando sun.

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And sometimes you might get
a little bit splashed

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Sometimes you get dredged, basically.

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So we're going to talk you

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through the 3 rides you can do
at Universal's Islands of Adventure,

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these exciting rides
on the Jurassic Park River Adventure.

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Popeye and Pluto's bilge rat barges.

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Try saying that when you're drunk

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and Dudley Do-right ripsaw falls

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Join me as we go through
all of these rides to work out the

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splash factor, how wet you’re going to get
and what that actually involve.

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Okay, let's get our feet a little bit wet
by going on the first of our attractions.

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And they set you one of my favorite rides
at Universal's Islands of Adventure,

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and that is the Jurassic Park River
Adventure.

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It's one of the opening day attractions.

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And even though it was opened in 1999,
it's still a brilliant ride.

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And instead something

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that I have to go on every single time
I went back in December

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and the weather was fine,
it was kind of quite nice, but

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no, wasn't quite boiling hot

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The good thing about this ride
is that the splash factor

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is probably a one or two out of five,
so you do not get drenched,

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not going to come off,
usually sort of drenched.

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They can adjust the water
kind of level with that.

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So depending on the kind of the weather.

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So when we when last time

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it was probably about

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about 20, 22 degrees just like that.

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So it was warm,
but not to the boiling hot.

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So we probably didn’t get as splashed as 

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if we were going in July and August
when it is a lot hotter.

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set the scene for you for this one.

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You're going to get into a boat

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and you're going to go and live your own
Jurassic Park adventure.

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So this is based on the original trilogy.

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Films
were actually based on the original film

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because obviously after the first Jurassic
Park, it closed down.

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So it actually happens before
the film is set.

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So you get on your boat

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the boat rides that you

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get in Disney, for example,
there's no lap bars

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so on Pirates of the Caribbean 

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No lap bars

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And speaking to some of the team members
at work, there's a couple of reasons

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why you have a lap.

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A one is a really steep drop.

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You actually need it for it.

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What it does do is that it
stops people from jumping out

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because you might get a little bit scared
and you might decide to try

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and jump out of the boat
as it's sort of you from doing that.

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Plus, also, if you have a safety harness,
there is that psychological feeling of

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this is going to be a pretty big thrill
ride because they've got a safety harness.

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There is no safety bar.

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It is literally just a ball
that goes across the entire row

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because the lifting is very steep.

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It will lean back onto the person
who's the biggest

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and they'll will take the brunt
of the force of it.

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And I was in a row my out and I had this
entire bar kind of leaning towards me,

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push it up and hold it up.

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So it starts off nice and gentle and slow.

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Not to to spoilers for these attractions,
but we'll kind of walk you through

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the basics of that.

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So, so, so nice and slow,
so that you go through this

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gentle river
gates, the Jurassic Park open,

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and then

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you see some of the most tamer dinosaurs.

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So the herbivores, 
no danger to us

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That is really nice.

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It's really relaxing out
in the Florida sun.

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And these are dinosaurs, big dinosaurs
and then you go round the corner

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there's a few little splashes
that kind of come up.

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So if you're sat on the left hand side,
there's a

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sort of waterfall

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And then they have like big splashes
that go up and then you might get

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a little bit of a splash off of that,
but nothing too wet to start with.

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Oh one thing to talk about is lockers

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on these attractions
with the Jurassic Park adventure.

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They do have lockers, but they're paid for

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because a splash factor rating
is only 1 to 2 out of five.

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You don't actually need
to put your belongings in there.

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They do you have lockers that are paid

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My little trick is to
I just walk down to Hagrid's

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in next door
in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

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Put my stuff in there
because it has a really long wait time.

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So you're going to have, you know,
at least an hour, an hour and a half,

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a couple of hours of free locker time

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Of course,
you can leave stuff with a non rider.

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It won’t get too wet

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I went on with my bag
and it was absolutely fine.

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You go in through Jurassic Park

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and then like it does in the film.

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Something happens
and we get knocked off course

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and then take you into the Rapture
enclosure and like a good kind of suspense

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film, don't
actually see the Raptors straight away,

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but you'll see signs,
you'll see things moving around as well.

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builds tension.

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Stephen
Spielberg was the creative director

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for Islands of Adventure,
so he knows how to build up suspense.

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He did the Jaws Films
and obviously directed these films as well.

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So he knows how to kind of build up
suspense.

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Then we're going to go up the Lift Hill

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As I said,
if you are the biggest person in that,

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it’s going to lean back on you

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and you go up and I’m not going to spoil the

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surprises for you, But there are a
few surprises along the way.

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And then you're going to go at the top

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and then that is where you're going
to go down the big drop.

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That's the one that you can see
when you go to Thunder Terrace Falls

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you can see
the big splash 

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That's basically
where you get to get wet.

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As I say, it depends on the day
as to how wet you’ll get

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They can sort of adjust that the sort
of the level of water, that kind of stuff.

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So but even on the hottest days
is still one or two on the splash rating

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And so you will get a bit wet.

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And again, it depends
on where you sat in the raft as well.

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So if you are sat of
in the middle of the middle row,

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you're not going to get as well as someone
who sat the front row or the side

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So that's one thing to think about.

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Try and be strategic of where you sit
and maybe put the rest of your family

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off to the sides.

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So I personally think
this is a fantastic ride

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to have Velocicoaster next door as well.

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It really makes the whole area,
this massive Jurassic Park, Jurassic

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World area, and it's brilliant.

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Let's move on to the log flume.

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This is based on Dudley Do-Right

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Which is something
we don't really have in the UK.

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It's a cartoon.

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It's a Canadian mountie

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It is a normal log flume ride

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But it's a highly themed one
and also a very, very wet will.

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This one, you are going to get wet.

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So you start off,
you get to go from this kind of a story.

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Basically, a girl gets kidnaped
and Dudley Do-Right has to go and save the girl.

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And as she kind of jokes and that kind of
stuff from the outside, you can

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you see the mountain.
You can certainly see the one drop.

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But inside the mountain
there are a couple of drops as well 

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and you will get
a little bit splashed in there.

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And then you got to come up
to the big drop.

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And this is the one that you could see
from the outside.

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And it goes down, back up again

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over water and then back down again.

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It's good.

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Not only do you get soaked,
you also get a massive thrill as well

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because you get that big drop

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back up again and then back down again
and then you splash out.

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And even in December,
which can like a cooler time of the year,

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check out all guides to the best
time of the year to go

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weather-wise

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You can check out the videos
and podcasts

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on the website as well.

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Even in December, which is a cooler time of the year,

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people will coming off
 drenched,

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soaking, soaking wet.

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This is a 4 sometimes

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five out of five on the splash ratinng

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So just be careful now with the wet rides
they do had those dryers.

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Is it basically these

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big heaters
you can stand in side of you pay for them

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and all the shops are next door
to these attractions.

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You can buy towels and you buy clothes.

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I’ll make some suggestions towards the end of the video

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Next move on to Popeye and Pluto's bilge
rat barges.

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This is a white water rafting attraction.

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So it's kind of similar kind of one that
we're going to get in most parks.

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It's just that this one is highly themed
and highly wet as well.

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The ones in the UK at Alton Towers

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you might off a little bit damp

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You're going to get absolutely soaked,
especially depending

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on where you sat
and obviously rotates in turn.

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So there is no guarantee
as to where you sit.

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If you'd done the Kali River
Rapids ride over in Animal Kingdom

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that is nowhere near as wet as this one.

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So start us off to the normal whitewater
rafting ride.

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So you go down 

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it’s a bit choppy

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Then there are just things, see,
which is just designed to get you.

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Absolutely soaked

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So there are things
where you basically just go under

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the fountains of water

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waterfalls
where it doesn't really matter

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where you are on the raft,
you are going to come off wet

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And now again, they can kind of lower down
things at depending on the temperatures.

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But it is a ride
that is designed to get you

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wet and you will come off
absolutely soaked.

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I mean, you

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there's not much difference
between just jumping in the water.

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So we'll go for some tips a bit later on
about how you can then dry off afterwards.

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I really like this ride,
but there are only certain

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times of the day that I do it
and also with the weather as well.

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So last time when they were in December,
the weather wasn't hot enough

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for me to go get absolutely drenched.

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So this is a ride that I decided
not to go on.

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So and judging by the amount of
empty rafts

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a lot of other people decided not to go on.

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This one is a really great attraction.

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And if you're going to go
when it is warm and hot,

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definitely go on to this attraction.

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But you will get absolutely soaked.

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So here are some tips for splashing.

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Good time at Universal
Islands of Adventure.

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Firstly, where appropriate, clothing.

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So for example, if you have trainers

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that kind of like quite fabric
and hold in water when they get wet.

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So running trainers,
these are not necessarily

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the greatest things to be
wearing for this attraction.

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Last time I went I had similar boots.

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They were waterproof.

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These are great
to wear on these kind of attraction.

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Some people wear flip flops,

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Crocs
seem to be incredibly popular.

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Not my personal fashions or choice,
but a lot of people do seem to be

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like wearing crocs and if you're happy
to wear them, fantastic.

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And wear those,
but wear appropriate clothing.

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So whatever.

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You don't want to get wet, don't wear it
on the ride, put it in the lockers.

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So either put it for Jurassic Park

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Use the lockers down in Hagrid's

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or for the other two wet rides.

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They actually had their own lockers, so
you can go and use those if you want to.

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Or of course

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Leave with a non rider as well as probably
there’s someone who doesn’t want to ride

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Don't wear anything long

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because it can take longer to dry,

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you basically want to go in to
the attraction wearing as little as possible.

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Now some people will wear swimwear

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but you need to
still be wearing a T-shirt

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and things as they might change their shorts

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from the normal shorts to the swimming shorts.

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And that's absolutely fine
to go and do that.

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when you go into the toilets

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afterwards, the toilets
are soaking wet on the floor

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because people are changing in
and out of clothes

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and then obviously leave your stuff

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in the lockers
that you don't want to get wet.

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Staying onsite, go and do the water rides

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You come off absolutely drenched
and then head back to the hotel,

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go get a change of clothes,
maybe a coffee,

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warm up, that kind of stuff, and then come
and hit the parks a bit later on.

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Or maybe go for a swim. 

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Because you’re already soaking wet.

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Make the most of it.

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If you do have any kind of clothes,
a quick drying or waterproofs.

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those are the things to wear.

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Those people dryers are available

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You do see a lot of people using them.

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I saw it as a family of five inside.

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One of them last time I was there
and they were pretty wet, to be fair.

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So you stand inside one of them

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It’s not going to get you bone dry,

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It's more about if you were wearing long
sleeve stuff or sort of heavier stuff.

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That's what you do.

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Once you wearing on the attraction

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you want to wear in lighter stuff because
that's going to dry out a lot quicker.

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If you want a back to back
or the attractions, check the wait times

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and do the one that's got the longest
wait time first.

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Because what you don't want to do
is, for example, if Dudley Do-Right has

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got an hour long queue, but the other ones
have got a 20 minute queue

00:13:28:15 - 00:13:32:03

You don't want to go onto the other ones
and then wait

00:13:32:05 - 00:13:34:19

for an hour to go on to that attraction.

00:13:34:19 - 00:13:37:15

You might be starting to dry off

00:13:37:15 - 00:13:39:26

A lot of the queue
is in the shade,

00:13:39:26 - 00:13:41:24

so you're not going to get the Orlando Sun
warming.

00:13:41:24 - 00:13:48:07

You always do the attraction
that has the shortest wait time last.

00:13:48:10 - 00:13:48:24

If you going

00:13:48:24 - 00:13:52:12

off season
then they are all going to walk ons

00:13:52:18 - 00:13:55:07

going in December, for example,
you're pretty much

00:13:55:07 - 00:13:57:25

just going to walk straight
onto all of these attractions again.

00:13:57:25 - 00:14:01:29

Check out our guide
to the best time of the year to go to.

00:14:02:02 - 00:14:05:20

If it's already raining, then why not?

00:14:05:23 - 00:14:08:23

If it is already torrential rain, like
sometimes you're going to get in Orlando,

00:14:08:27 - 00:14:10:15

then why not go on the water rides?

00:14:10:15 - 00:14:12:13

you’re going to get wet anyway

00:14:12:13 - 00:14:14:07

And if you're already wet,
you might as well

00:14:14:07 - 00:14:18:00

go onto these attractions,
embrace the wetness and have a blast.

00:14:18:06 - 00:14:21:19

These rides are designed to get you wet,
also designed to have

00:14:21:23 - 00:14:26:12

loads of fun as well,
so make sure you have tons of fun, get wet.

00:14:26:12 - 00:14:27:14

Enjoy yourself.

00:14:27:14 - 00:14:29:17

At Universal's Islands of Adventure.

00:14:29:17 - 00:14:33:16

If you found this useful,
please hit the subscribe button

00:14:33:19 - 00:14:35:03

if you can leave us a comment,

00:14:35:03 - 00:14:38:28

a rating review, a thumbs up or whatever
it be absolutely fantastic.

00:14:38:28 - 00:14:39:25

Thank you much.

00:14:39:25 - 00:14:43:17

If you want us to come and help you, book
your holiday to Orlando, please get in touch at

00:14:43:17 - 00:14:48:28

orlandoinsider.co.uk

00:14:49:00 - 00:14:53:29

orlandoinsider.co.uk and one of our Orlando
gurus will be more than happy

00:14:53:29 - 00:14:57:15

to help you put together your perfect,
awesome Orlando adventure.

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Orlando Holiday PlanningBy Orlando Insider Travel Agents